Leave it to Rachael Ray to give us major inspiration to achieve the aesthetically pleasing “girl dinner” trend. The celeb chef always serves up the most delightful, wholesome recipes in her cookbooks, on her website, and on the ‘Gram. In this particular recipe, Rachael Ray totally elevates the mood for your special evening with your favorite girlfriends. Move over, Caesar salad and French fries, because Rachael Ray’s Dirty Martini Shrimp and Linguine recipe is having a moment—and we’re so here for it.
Girl’s night out has been replaced with an effortlessly chic girl’s night in. So whether the theme is silk pajamas, garden string light party, or a Nancy Meyers-themed cottage-coastal evening, set up bar and the table. You and your girls are in for a truly fabulous treat.
The most important ingredients you’ll need include vermouth, gin, and olives—because, duh! We’re whipping up a dirty martini dish. The iconic chef shared on her talk show website (via EatingWell), “[It] smells so extravagant and delightful, and it’s such a simple, silly, fun dish, and it’s so delicious.”
There’s a similar TikTok dirty martini pasta recipe by @legallyhealthyblonde floating around. Rachael’s pasta includes shrimp, which delivers in the protein department. The rest, of course, brings the girl’s night full-circle.
How To Make Rachael Ray’s Dirty Martini Shrimp Pasta
“I think you could make this pretty successfully with chicken as well—or just straight-up dirty martini,” Rachael says in her video.
The chef begins by marinating about a pound or 24 shrimp in some fresh lemon juice and a few garlic cloves, for each pound of pasta. She marinates the shrimp for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Rachael then boils the water and adds her egg linguine to it. The pasta cooks quickly, so Rachael stresses to be on top of cooking your shrimp while the linguine cooks. Make sure everything’s in place before you’re good to go!
“Always undercook your pasta by a full minute,” Rachael notes. “It will continue to cook when you add it to the sauce.”
Now the fun part. Once the shrimp’s been cooking for about four minutes, slowly add 1/2 cup of gin to the pan, then 1/4 cup of dry vermouth. The olive brine is added next—three tablespoons—followed by 3/4 to 1 cup of buttery sliced green olives.
When the mixture cooks down a bit, Rachael instructs to add a couple tablespoons of butter and the cooking liquid from the linguini. The slightly undercooked linguine can be added to the pan at this point.
Toss everything together with some grassy, fat-leaf parsley.
“So extravagant and delightful,” Rachael says. And we couldn’t agree more!
The finishing touch? We noticed the master chef garnishes this dish with vibrant edible flowers—the perfect accent for your ladies, especially if it’s a garden-themed evening.
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Alexa Mellardo